Post a Lookout: The Anesthesiologist as Watchman (Isaiah 21:6)
Hope Gehle, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC, UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Many religious physicians seek to integrate their faith with their work, and such integration seems more plausible with clinical practices that open up space for attention to more than what is needed technically at a given moment. In primary care, clinicians can get to know their patients’ stories in more depth. Surgeons prepare patients for and accompany them through what can be life-changing interventions. Palliative medicine clinicians witness to the limits of medicine and invite conversations about spiritual matters.
But what about a specialty like anesthesiology, which, however important, seems to offer merely technical support for patients as they undergo a procedure or surgery? In a typical patient interaction, an anesthesiologist will briefly obtain consent from the patient before guiding them to the operating room and sedating them. Although some have drawn parallels between anesthesia and Genesis 2, where God causes a “deep sleep to fall upon” Adam, the parallel seems stretched. Anesthesiologists are not God and cannot create an inspired being from another person’s rib. Nevertheless, in this essay I propose that the work of an anesthesiologist can be understood by biblical reference to the close surveillance of a watchman who announces what he sees (Isaiah 21:6).
In the Bible, watchmen or “lookouts” are appointed to announce what they see continually by day and by night. God makes the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel figurative lookouts for Israel as Assyria and Babylon threaten the kingdom. Just as watchmen look closely for threats of swords and horsemen, the prophets listen for the word of God and warn the Israelite people to repent and to turn to God (Ezekiel 3). Similarly, anesthesiologists look closely for threats to the unconscious patient, and this close attention allows other clinicians and staff to carry out their work on behalf of the patient. Through attentive monitoring, an anesthesiologist anticipates and provides what the patient needs, without being asked, whether that is increased analgesia, intravenous fluids, or medications. This skill of attention contributes to the patient’s flourishing during and after the procedure. Put simply, anesthesiologists are appointed as watchmen for patients during defenseless moments in their lives.
This essay expands on this analogy of anesthesiologists as watchmen of the operating room and procedural suite. Like the lookouts of scripture who give warning, safeguard fields and vineyards, and announce the sun’s rising, anesthesia providers are guardians of patients’ body and mind in the night of the OR and welcome patients to a new day after a “deep sleep” (Genesis 2:21). Finally, this essay will note the often inconspicuous roles of watchmen and anesthesiologists, which allow fieldworkers and surgeons amongst others to accomplish their labor faithfully. Through this scriptural analogy to watchmen, anesthesiologists might have a theological framework for integrating their work with that of God’s prophets and Israel’s forebearers.
But what about a specialty like anesthesiology, which, however important, seems to offer merely technical support for patients as they undergo a procedure or surgery? In a typical patient interaction, an anesthesiologist will briefly obtain consent from the patient before guiding them to the operating room and sedating them. Although some have drawn parallels between anesthesia and Genesis 2, where God causes a “deep sleep to fall upon” Adam, the parallel seems stretched. Anesthesiologists are not God and cannot create an inspired being from another person’s rib. Nevertheless, in this essay I propose that the work of an anesthesiologist can be understood by biblical reference to the close surveillance of a watchman who announces what he sees (Isaiah 21:6).
In the Bible, watchmen or “lookouts” are appointed to announce what they see continually by day and by night. God makes the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel figurative lookouts for Israel as Assyria and Babylon threaten the kingdom. Just as watchmen look closely for threats of swords and horsemen, the prophets listen for the word of God and warn the Israelite people to repent and to turn to God (Ezekiel 3). Similarly, anesthesiologists look closely for threats to the unconscious patient, and this close attention allows other clinicians and staff to carry out their work on behalf of the patient. Through attentive monitoring, an anesthesiologist anticipates and provides what the patient needs, without being asked, whether that is increased analgesia, intravenous fluids, or medications. This skill of attention contributes to the patient’s flourishing during and after the procedure. Put simply, anesthesiologists are appointed as watchmen for patients during defenseless moments in their lives.
This essay expands on this analogy of anesthesiologists as watchmen of the operating room and procedural suite. Like the lookouts of scripture who give warning, safeguard fields and vineyards, and announce the sun’s rising, anesthesia providers are guardians of patients’ body and mind in the night of the OR and welcome patients to a new day after a “deep sleep” (Genesis 2:21). Finally, this essay will note the often inconspicuous roles of watchmen and anesthesiologists, which allow fieldworkers and surgeons amongst others to accomplish their labor faithfully. Through this scriptural analogy to watchmen, anesthesiologists might have a theological framework for integrating their work with that of God’s prophets and Israel’s forebearers.